The Anniversary comes exactly one week after summit between US, North Korea.

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Updated: 11:28 AM EDT Jun 19, 2018

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WEBVTT WYOMING WITH THE BREAKDOWN. JOHN, GOOD AFTERNOON. JOHN: IN THIS WYOMING COMMUNITY WHERE OTTO WARMBIER GREW UP, THIS IS WHERE HE WENT TO HIGH SCHOOL -- EXTRAORDINARY IS PROBABLY TOO MILD A WORD FOR THE HISTORIC DIMENSION OF THE SUMMIT AND THE PRESIDENT’S WORDS ABOUT WARMBIER’S LEGACY AND IMPACT. PRESIDENT TRUMP STARTED WITHOUT WARMBIER AND THE TRAGEDY OF WHAT HAPPENED TO HIM, NO SUMMIT. IT WAS ONE YEAR AGO THAT THE 22 YEAR-OLD WAS RELEASED FROM KOREAN CAPTIVITY AND SENT HOME IN A COMA. SO FAR, HIS PARENTS FRED AND CINDY HAVE NOT REACTED TO THE SUMMIT’S DENUCLEARIZATION STATEMENT. NOT TO THE WORDS THE PRESIDENT USED TO DESCRIBE THE GEOPOLITICAL IMPACT OF THE YOUNG MAN’S MYSTERIOUS DEATH PRESIDENT TRUMP: OTTO WARMBIER IS A VERY SPECIAL PERSON AND HE WILL BE FOR A LONG TIME IN MY LIFE. HIS PARENTS ARE GOOD FRIENDS OF MINE. I THINK WITHOUT OTTO, THIS WOULD NOT HAVE HAPPENED. SOMETHING HAPPENED FROM THAT DAY -- IT WAS A TERRIBLE THING, IT WAS BRUTAL -- BUT A LOT PEOPLE STARTED TO FOCUS ON WHAT WAS GOING ON, INCLUDING NORTH KOREA. I REALLY THINK THAT OTTO IS SOMEONE WHO DID NOT DIE IN VAIN. I TOLD THIS TO HIS PARENTS. A SPECIAL YOUNG MAN AND I HAVE TO SAY SPECIAL PARENTS, SPECIAL PEOPLE. OTTO DID NOT DIE IN VAIN. HE HAD A LOT TO DO WITH US BEING HERE TODAY JOHN: IT’S NOT KNOWN IF THE WARMBIERS ARE PLANNING A STATEMENT THEY FILED SUIT AGAINST NORTH KOREA TWO MONTHS AGO ALLEGING THEIR SON WAS TORTURED AND KILLED BY THE REGIME. LIVE IN WYOMING, JOHN LONDON, WLWT N

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1 year later: Otto Warmbier's legacy is still being written

The Anniversary comes exactly one week after summit between US, North Korea.

Otto Warmbier, the 22-year-old U.S. college student who died in a vegetative state in a Cincinnati hospital days after his release from North Korea is being remembered prominently during a dramatic shift in U.S.-North Korean relations.

President Donald Trump said the death of the "very special person" galvanized determination to deal with North Korea, leading to his history-making summit this month with Kim Jong Un. Trump said in Singapore that Warmbier "did not die in vain."

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Parents Fred and Cindy Warmbier, of suburban Cincinnati, expressed appreciation for Trump's comments and have said they hope "something positive" comes from the summit. "We are proud of Otto and miss him," their statement said.

Otto's parents "are trying to take their grief and channel it into very constructive ways" to raise awareness of human rights in North Korea and of "violations that occurred there, including against their own son," U.S. Sen. Rob Portman, a Cincinnati-area Republican who has kept in touch with the family since their ordeal began, told reporters this month.

North Korea no longer poses a nuclear threat, Trump has said, while not offering details on how or when weapons might be eliminated or even reduced.

The Warmbiers have spoken out repeatedly about North Korea's treatment of Otto during his 17-plus months of captivity and filed a wrongful death lawsuit against North Korea in April, saying its government tortured and killed their son. They have said they want to hold North Korea accountable for its "barbaric treatment" of their son.

During a United Nations symposium in May, Cindy Warmbier said that the family will keep speaking out about human rights violations to publicly "rub their noses in this."

Portman said the Warmbiers are happy for the families of three American detainees North Korea freed ahead of the summit.

"Of course, we all wish that Otto had been one of them, coming home healthy, and that he was still with us," Portman said.

Warmbier, a University of Virginia student visiting with a tour group, was arrested by North Korean authorities in January 2016 on suspicion of stealing a propaganda poster and was sentenced in March that year to 15 years in prison with hard labor after making a lengthy televised confession and appeal for mercy. He disappeared from public view after that, but then was released and arrived in Cincinnati on June 13, 2017.

He died on June 19.

Doctors in Cincinnati said he had suffered severe brain damage, although they weren't sure what led up to it. North Korea denied torturing him, saying he fell into a coma as a result of botulism and a sleeping pill.

Fred Warmbier last year recounted to Fox News the condition in which Otto's parents received him: making an "involuntary, inhuman sound," ''staring blankly into space jerking violently," blind and deaf, with his head shaved. Trump tweeted afterward: "Otto was tortured beyond belief by North Korea."

The Warmbiers attended the president's State of the Union address, in which Trump paid tribute to them as "powerful witnesses to a menace that threatens our world."

On Friday, when asked by a reporter why he didn't criticize North Korea's human rights violations during the summit after having spoken so passionately about Otto, the Republican president replied: "You know why, because I don't want to see a nuclear weapon destroy you and your family ... I want to have a good relationship with North Korea."

Portman has expressed caution, saying there need to be ways to verify North Korea does what it says it will. He recalled that when Otto returned home, it became clear that the "regime had lied to us about his condition. ... We have to be vigilant about the regime and the nature of the regime."

But Portman said he supported having talks, telling reporters last week that had there been direct U.S. dialogue with North Korea after Warmbier's arrest, better communication could have "perhaps even been able to save his life."